why should we get excited over the last 40?
Because that's when we have continuous satellite data from, and don't have to worry about the accuracy of extrapolations from limited data sets.
ice melts in the summer
Yes, it does. Nobody is upset because Arctic and Antarctic ice are melting, but rather because the
extent of ice melt is trending towards larger and larger areas. This has potentially serious ramifications.
as far as the quality of my links goes why should i trust sky is falling propaganda from organizations depending on panic for their funding?
You didn't follow the link, did you? If you have ANY evidence that the
data provided are fraudulent, by all means present it. I didn't link a site that said "here's why global warming is real and we should panic". I linked a site that says "here's the data we have, enjoy". So, do you dispute the
data, and if so, on what grounds?
they will never admit they were wrong. why should i believe them now after they have made so many incorrect predictions?
1. I'm not sure who "they" are.
2. There are annual conferences, announcements, and press releases about the accuracy of climate models. Old models are routinely discarded or updated based on new data.
3. This is how science works. ALL science. New discoveries are made, models and explanations are modified, old ideas are frequently discarded. If you are genuine in your belief system that any science with failed predictions or a non-100% accuracy rate is not to be trusted, tell me which sciences you still DO accept.
Further, can you provide even a sketchy road map from "panic" to funding for atmospheric research?
Evolution: Those too dumb to survive on their own should be allowed to die
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greg-233
10 years ago
I'm willing to concede that not everyone who denies evolution or climate change is merely a troll trying to provoke a flamewar, and that some people are genuinely sceptical. But a lot of that "scepticism" is built on a foundation of confusion and disinformation.
Take the terms "global warming" and "climate change". There are people who say the climate scientists have been changing the name of what is happening to the earth, in accordance with some "policy", because even the climate scientists can't explain what is going on. "Climate change" is the more precise term for what the planet is experiencing. "Global warming" is a term that has caused much confusion. It gave people the impression that every corner of the planet was uniformly warming up in a sort of worldwide heatwave. So every winter you'd get some smart aleck saying:
'There's two feet of snow outside my door. So much for "global warming", huh? Is the earth getting hotter or colder? Why can't those crazy climate scientists make up their minds?'
As a matter of fact, an increase in the severity of snowstorms was one of the predicted effects of global warming. Snow requires precipitation. One of the predicted consequences of a warming planet is an increase in precipitation. So if you live in a part of the world where the climate is conducive to snow, there will be snowstorms.
Scientists need to be careful about what kind of language they use so as to avoid confusion among the general public. It's this kind of confusion that denial organizations take full advantage of. Creationists do something similar when they say evolution is "only" a theory. But the word "theory" has a different meaning among scientists than it does among non-scientists. Among non-scientists a theory is merely a hunch or a guess, but for the scientists themselves, the word has a much more specific definition relating to the data they're studying.
But even "climate change" is an imprecise term it seems, because the deniers you meet online or face to face will argue that 'the climate is always changing.' Wretched semantics!
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greg-233
9 years ago
Evolution and climate change tend to come up a lot on the IMDb Politics board. Every few days you'll find a flamewar raging about one of these two subjects. Here's an example of an argument about climate change. Started on January 10:
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000082/inline/238937829?p=1
The climate change threads seem to come up more often than the evolution threads. Not so many people are in denial about evolution as they are about climate change it seems.
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